My brother’s significant other, J, is only 53, but she’s had rheumatoid arthritis and other health problems all of her adult life. In July, she experienced congestive heart failure and she’s had to go off all the drugs that were helping with the arthritis in order to attempt to treat the heart failure. Unfortunately, the doctors have been unable to get her to a state that could be considered a good quality of life—she’s miserable from water weight gain, in pain from the arthritis, and unable to function beyond transferring from wheelchair to recliner to toilet to bed.
She told the rheumatologist yesterday that she was going to quit taking all of her medicine. He suggested that she talk to the home hospice care people before making that drastic of a step. My brother thinks she agreed to that. They should be able to get hospice in this week sometime.
Nov 17, 08:46AM PST | 0 comments
These happened on the same day.
I had a lunch meeting in downtown St. Louis. I took an early train and went to visit our new CityGarden. It’s lovely even with most of the leaves gone. It was easier to see the “bones” of the garden.
In the evening we went to a small dinner party at the Missouri Botanical Garden with the director and his wife, both botanists. This was an event that required new clothes since we tend to have mostly gardening clothes and the sort of business casual outfits that engineers and librarians wear. Getting clothes was a series of adventures! The event was worth it—drinks in the gallery of Ridgway and supper in the Temperate House which made it feel like we were dining in a courtyard in the Mediterranean.
Nov 15, 08:57AM PST | 5 cheers | 1 comment
I got my hair colored! I liked the color I had this summer, gray but warmed by all the time I spend in the sunshine. But all that got cut off in September and it just seemed pale. I figured there was someone who could help me with that….I discovered that there is such a thing as a “curly hair specialist” so I went for a free consultation. We decided that we want my hair quite a bit longer, so no cut for awhile. But the color could be changed anytime I wanted—included right then. So I went for it. She also taught me how to style it for curl. I thought it was too short to curl right now, but it was wavy when I went in and curly when I came out! Seems like that’s what should happen when you go to a curly hair specialist.
Nov 15, 08:49AM PST | 3 cheers | 0 comments